In his book From Third World to First, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew wrote about the drive to make Singapore a tropical garden city. He described the campaign as one of the ways to achieve First World standards in Singapore. For instance, greenery raised morale and made people proud. It also showed effort put into maintenance and impressed foreign VIPs.
Shade from rooftop gardens is also estimated to lower local ambient temperatures by up to 4 deg C. Roadside trees also filter soot from traffic exhaust. The push to green Singapore has been proven to be successful. The land area covered by greenery increased from 36 per cent in 1987 to 47 per cent last year, despite the fact that the population nearly doubled in the same period.
The Tree Planting campaign was launched by the government in 1963 with the objective of making Singapore a green city. Every year a minimum of 10,000 saplings are planted as part of this campaign. The campaign consists of an annual Tree Planting Day.
